Music fans used to have to search out rare albums and save up for new releases; now they're just a few clicks away, often for free. It's a scary time for recording artists and their labels, but a great time for learning about jazz. There is a community of blogs devoted to disseminating information about why we love this folkloric, complicated, innovative, conservative, authentic, experimental and unclassifiable music. There aren't editors, wordcount restrictions, or perfected ideologies: it's a messy collection of passionate information, and all the stronger for that.

My own blog is called Do the Math. I started it in 2005 – not to join a community (there really wasn't one yet) but because the band I'm in, the Bad Plus, had begun touring, and I wanted to share our love of other music and art with our fans. Today, if you are interested in jazz and the internet, you probably know about DTM. I'm notorious for long pieces about musicians. My interview with Tim Berne is 18,000 words; Wynton Marsalis is 14,000, Gunther Schuller is 22,000. I have Henry Threadgill's in the can: that may be the longest yet.

Some have complained about this. But my readership seems to crave the kind of depth and detail only possible when you take your time. When I fooled with reviewing CDs for jazz publication DownBeat, 300 words (cut further by the editor) didn't let me get in everything I wanted to say – and it only paid a tiny sum. Not that I think concise reviews in established publications are unimportant: it's increasingly necessary to have those gatekeepers to sieve the vast flood of information and product. But on DTM I can consider whatever I want, for as long as I want. I don't get paid, but some of my essays cause ripples, a response far more gratifying than a cheque. Three of them come to mind.

My list of favourite jazz albums, 1973-1991, generated a brief community effort to celebrate an era somewhat lost in the history books. The eventual site, behearer.com, failed, but the lingering effects were overwhelmingly positive: you just can't say there was no good jazz from those years any more. (John Fordham wrote about it on the Guardian music blog.)

Thanks to his purist approach, Wynton Marsalis is the most controversial jazz musician in recent memory. Tired of the kneejerk negativity, I wrote a series of articles that pleaded his cause (albeit with caveats). I think – and certainly hope – there has been a bit of a thaw between the conservatives and the avant-garde because of those posts.

Some young musicians ask me, "Does blogging get you gigs?" Honestly, while it doesn't hurt, I just don't know. I already had a functioning career when DTM got off the ground. Perhaps some people who hated the Bad Plus for being influenced by rock have given us another chance after my paeans to Lester Young and Ornette Coleman – but I have no proof. Indeed, I don't think the average Bad Plus fan reads my blog, and nor do they need to.

But if those fans do find DTM, I want them to keep swimming in as much great jazz as they can stand. DTM is a way to give back to the community that keeps me afloat. In that spirit, let me send you to four other blogs:

Destination: Out! is one of the oldest and best jazz blogs. Jeff Jackson and Jeff Golick focus on individual tracks and tell you why they are good.